Pensar históricamente la(s) Leyenda(s) Negras: De los relatos críticos del pasado a la retórica ideológica en el presente

This article starts by distinguishing between black legends as the critical discourses that accompany the rise and fall of historical empires, and the Black Legend as the specific ideological rhetoric of Spanish Modern History after the loss of its transatlantic colonies. On this basis, and assuming that since the second half of the 20th century no power has claimed to be an empire or legitimized its violence, it offers a comparative tour of the black legend of the 16th and 17th centuries and its differences with the debates of the 18th century up to the formulation of the Black Legend at the beginning of the 20th
century. The aim is to think historically about the phenomenon in order to critically distance oneself from the nationalist essentialism that underlies the negationism about the Black Legend.